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12/1/11

Ride In 12/1

December. This month and the next and maybe the next are the most trying times for bike commuters. It's cold. Sometimes it snows. It gets dark early. Jowly men in red suits park their reindeer just about anywhere. But this morning, at least, wasn't so bad thanks to sun and a lack of wind. I'm beginning to appreciate more and more that my commute takes me west in the morning and east at night and I can avoid much of the sun glare that I previously faced (ha!) when I was riding home to Arlington. Speaking of Arlington, another Bikeshare station installed and there's still one more to go in December. DC is keeping apace, but with many more stations planned in this roll-out (I think 25 or so compared to 5), they seem to be somewhat behind schedule.
Today was the first day for the thick winter gloves. I also put the shoe covers over my shoes. Compared to previous years, I don't think it's been that cold and I'm grateful.
It was a dull ride today. The most exciting part was trying to work through the moral dilemma of letting the guy riding in front of me know that he left shoelace was untied. I declined to do so, thinking it not worth my troubling him. I hope he managed to stave off lace-induced disaster.
Two bicyclists riding through the security bollards in the opposite direction as I did this morning. It's been, what, maybe two weeks now since the tape was last there. I think that we won, even if it's purely coincidental. In any case, I think that we can take credit for it.
Orange Public bikes are the hotness. Saw two today. I wish someone in town actually stocked them because I just don't like the idea of buying a bike over the internet without riding it first.
Big thanks to DCDPW for de-leaving the cycletrack. Noted improvement duly noted:

You can almost sort of see the leaf-removing machine.

Here's hoping that snow removal is a higher priority than leaf removal.
Just laggardly for much of my trip. Some days are slower than others. Not much to do about that. I mean, other than try to suffer your way through it, which is no fun at all. Better to just take it easy and just get there when you get there. I generally find the length of my commute to be pretty ok- it's long enough to feel like I'm actually getting a proper bike ride, but not so long that I get bored- but some days I wish I had a nice and easy, flat two-miler. In fact, I sort of wish that everyone had a nice and easy, flat two-miler. It's the impossible dream.

I've got an 11-miler, 7.5 of it on the MVT from DC to Old Town. I love it because driving the car used to take me 1 hour with the two kid dropoffs. Using the bike takes me 1 hour 20 minutes with the two kid dropoffs. So, at the cost of 20 minutes, I get to ride 11 miles each way--which is some some solid exercise.

@utrarunnergirl I think maybe if I could do short and flat for 2 days a week, I'd be pretty happy. Especially when it's very cold or very hot. @J.T. 11 miles and two kids? That's pretty serious stuff. But you're totally right about being worth it time-wise. And yeah, it "costs" you 20 minutes, but it also "saves" you an hour in the car, which isn't something that I find especially enjoyable.